Dehydrating Food Tips

Series Summary

Cooking fruits and vegetables tends to leach vitamins and nutrients that would otherwise be present, but it can be difficult to keep food fresh enough for consumption without cooking it in some way. That is the concern that likely led to the development of the food dehydrator. Of course people have been drying fruit and even meat for centuries, but with the recent advent of healthy foods and raw foods, dehydrating food has become even more popular. Food dehydrators work by using warm air to reduce the water content of foods. Dried fruit is probably the most common thing to dehydrate but many foods can be made with the use of a food dehydrator.

In this free video series, our health food expert will demonstrate how to dehydrate food. You will learn how to make basic dried fruit, but also how to make a delicious trail mix and your own vegetable crackers. This is a great skill to learn for people who are health conscious or do a lot of outdoor activities. Our chef will show you how to prepare all the fruits, vegetables, and nuts to put in your food dehydrator, and will also give you tips and advice on how to use your dehydrator. If your food dehydrator has been sitting unused in a closet somewhere, let our expert show you how to make a variety of delicious and healthy treats.

Video Transcript

"Hello! I'm Denise Bennett and I am here on behalf of Expert Village today and we are going to do some dehydrating. I want to explain why we dehydrate. Okay so what we are interested in is raw foods and raw foods is really excellent for the body. They are still intact enzymes, vitamins, minerals, all those important things. Cooked food is going to destroy those things so I am interested in raw foods, living foods. This body is important to me. This is the one I get so I want to be able to feed it and have it certainly well. So dehydrated food the reason we do that is first of all is if I'm on a hike and I don't want to bring an apple and I want to actually bring a Trail Mix with me, something that is still living, good for my body but it isn't mushy and hard to take with me and I don't have a refrigerator with me obviously. So the dehydrator is great for that. Also, I might want to give a little bit more variety to my diet."